December 7, 2009

Welcome to the first of five The Number Line columns looking back at the figures and stats of Phish Fall Tour 2009. Today, we’ll start by listing the one-timers – aka songs the group only played once all tour – at each and every show the band played on their recently completed jaunt.

[Photo by Tim Hara]

Total Songs Played at least once – 144
Total Shows Played – 13
Total One-Timers – 70

Fall Tour 2009 One-Timers:

Detroit: 4 (Horn, Mist, Runaway Jim, Bug)
Cinci 1: 1 (Fast Enough For You)
Cinci 2: 7 (Torn & Frayed, Strange Design, Ginseng Sullivan, Albuquerque, Dirt, If I Could, Sleeping Monkey)
Syracuse: 6 (Beauty Of A Broken heart, Drowned, BBFCM, Tube, Theme From The Bottom, GTBT)
Philly 1: 6 (Bathtub Gin, Camel Walk, The Curtain With, Twenty Years Later, The Mango Song, Simple)
Philly 2: 7 (Sugar Shack, Sleep Again, Train Song, Birds Of A Feather, Farmhouse, Esther, Oh! Sweet Nuthin’)

READ ON for the rest of the Fall Tour one-timers list…

Words: Eli Badra
Images: Adam Kaufman

Watching Phish play this year has been a treat. While the band may not be quite up to snuff compared to their mid-90s selves, it can’t be denied that what we are witnessing is a slow but steady musical renaissance. For evidence, just listen to the eons-ago Boston performance and compare it to what we heard during two nights in Albany the previous weekend.

The band is reaching plateaux with each successive bout of touring, settling in comfortably before continuing upwards. As their foray through the Northeast draws to a close, Phish is playing the best music we’ve heard in 2009. It’s no surprise, then, that a three-night stint at Madison Square Garden – the site of some of their finest performances – comes with high anticipation. While Thursday’s show didn’t contain the bust-outs that have become standard this tour, nor the farthest-reaching threads of group improvisation, what it did feature was a perfectly paced and masterfully executed second set that was simply a joy to partake in.

Trey Anastasio kicked things off with the all-too-familiar guitar chugs to set up Punch You In The Eye, a solid opener that got the audience’s blood flowing. From there, the band jumped into Backwards Down the Number Line, wherein Trey laid down a brief but pleasant solo. Phish then touched on Axilla before dropping a somewhat extended Taste, which had the guitar really leaning on those minor-key notes throughout the solo.

READ ON for more of Eli’s thoughts and Adam’s photos…

For the seventh holiday season in a row, Umphrey’s McGee guitarists Jake Cinninger and Brendan Bayliss teamed up for a special acoustic performance to benefit a local charity. This year’s

Today, VH1 Classic will celebrate The Beatles with a day of Fab Four programming. Highlights include an airing of Richard Lester’s 1964 film A Hard Day’s Night (8PM), the John Lennon